False Prophet Ronald Weinland

The story of the IRS criminal investigation of Ronald Weinland was broken on this blog a year ago last Saturday, back on August 1 of 2008. There is some confusion about exactly what an IRS criminal investigation is. Some, like Doctor Bob Thiel, seem to confuse a criminal investigation with a more common taxpayer audit. Others seem to think that Weinland will soon be wearing metal bracelets and then checking into his suite at Club Fed. Or perhaps some have forgotten about it, since it was so long ago.  I have done some research on the topic of IRS criminal investigations and am sharing it along with some speculation regarding the case of Ronald Weinland in particular.  As a reminder, the existence of a criminal investigation does not mean that the target is actually guilty — that must be determined in a court of law.

The IRS does not give out information on the progress of its criminal investigations. In fact they will not give out information even if they decide to drop the investigation. The exception would be if the taxpayer specifically authorizes a press release on the case. If the investigation against Weinland is dropped, he might very well want to ask the IRS issue a press release given the public nature of this criminal investigation. Googling “IRS Criminal Investigation” returns several hits discussing Weinland in the first few pages of results. But even should the criminal investigation of Weinland be dropped, that does not necessarily mean that he was cleared — it’s more likely that the IRS decided it would not be able to develop sufficient evidence to overcome its substantial burden of proof in a criminal trial (they might still have sufficient evidence for a finding of civil tax deficiency).

Given the lack of exact information, the following is somewhat speculative. But, it does have some facts and some research to back up the speculation. In addition to the documents filed by Weinland’s attorney with the federal court, I have researched various online sources including the Department of Justice’s Criminal Tax Manual and the Internal Revenue Manual Part 9 which discusses IRS Criminal Investigation (CI). Additionally, there are various statements from Ronnie himself.

The probability of an IRS criminal investigation being initiated against an average taxpayer is very low. Approximately 5 investigations per 100,000 taxpayers are initiated each year, or approximately 0.005%. A criminal investigation is very different from a normal audit, to which around 1% of taxpayers may be subjected. Most of the taxpayer audits which are correspondence audits in which a taxpayer may be asked to provide an explanation or a receipt.

IRS criminal investigations are of different categories. More than half of the investigations relate to taxable income from illegal sources such as drug revenues. For example, Al Capone got away with his gangster activities for awhile but ultimately was put in prison for tax fraud as the result of an IRS criminal investigation. Unfortunately, convincing people to send you all their money based on false prophecies is not regarded as illegally sourced income. Aside from that, I am not aware of any allegations that Weinland is mixed up in drug trafficking, illegal gambling, or similar illegal activities to generate income and am inclined to disbelieve that he is.

My speculation is that the IRS suspects him of tax evasion based on legally sourced income. But perhaps it would be considered illegally sourced income if embezzlement is a factor. This could be the case should Ronnie have taken church funds as personal income without reporting it as such, or if he charged personal expenses to the church account. The fact that church records were included in the IRS administrative summonses suggests this as an avenue of investigation. I am not aware of any independent oversight board within COG-PKG, and written statements Weinland made back in 2000 suggest that The Church of God Inc. is a corporation sole with only Ronald Weinland as a member.

Ron states that everything he has is God’s and that God has given it to him. While he may literally think that, the Internal Revenue code would have a different viewpoint which would be that he would have to pay income tax first before being able to buy what is his/God’s. We also have a statement from Weinland that he is commingling funds based on his statement that church expenses were going on his personal credit card and the church was paying them off monthly. (Weinland’s sermon of 10/27/07 “What has Changed pt 1″, discussion beginning at about 39 minutes.)

His Swiss bank accounts may also factor in, but I doubt they instigated the investigation. I would suspect they would have been brought to light after the investigation started and the third party records were examined. My understanding is that the IRS was not successful at getting records of US depositors from the Swiss bank UBS until after the criminal investigation of Weinland started. Of course if Weinland filed his FBAR forms as required, then his Swiss bank accounts won’t be an issue.

Tax evasion cases are often referred to the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division from the civil tax audit division. If your tax return is audited and a deficiency is found, you likely will have to pay the taxes and above that a substantial penalty. But you would not face jail time as the result of a civil tax audit. Civil tax auditors are trained to look for indicators of fraud. If they suspect fraud they are to bring the case to the attention of their supervisor. A trained fraud referral specialist will review the case before turning it over to IRS CI. If a taxpayer case is referred to IRS CI, the civil tax audit stops immediately as the IRS will not jeopardize a criminal case with a simultaneous civil audit. (IRM 1.2.13.1.11(7))

What are indicators of fraud? These are indicators that the taxpayer is taking steps to hide income. Simple violations which can be attributed to honest ignorance are not indicators. After all, the tax code is complicated enough that many people have violated it through simple ignorance. That won’t excuse you from the penalties and being required to pay the tax anyway, but you won’t go to jail for an honest mistake revealed as the result of a civil audit.

Some criminal tax cases are initiated based on tips from informants. But with daughter Audra handling the books, I doubt that the investigation of Weinland was initiated as the result of an informant’s tip. I’m not aware of anyone else who would have sufficient knowledge, even a disgruntled ex-member. For an informant tip, the IRS also needs some proof to start with, as tips are often motivated by revenge and lack substantiation.

IRS CI sometimes develops their own leads. For example, they might have looked at the returns for all the taxpayers who live on the same golf course with Weinland and flagged those whose reported incomes were not consistent with their addresses.

In order to convict someone of tax evasion, the IRS is challenged with a substantial burden of proof. Not only does it have to be proven as in a civil case that taxes were not paid, but this must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt as opposed to by-a-preponderance-of-the-evidence in civil court. Additionally, it must be proven that the taxpayer made an affirmative action to avoid paying taxes, rather than a simple act of omission. Also, it must be shown that this was done willfully. For willfulness it must be proven that the taxpayer intentionally and knowingly violated the law.

IRS CI reviews a case before deciding to accept it for investigation. They will look at a number of factors. But most of all they must estimate it to be highly likely that their investigation would result in a successful prosecution and conviction. Otherwise, they are wasting their limited resources allowing only a few thousand investigations to be launched each year.

In my next post on the topic, I’ll discuss how the criminal investigation might play out.

Yesterday, False Prophet Ronald Weinland spoke from Minneapolis.  As usual, people came from far and wide to see their spiritual idol.  Ron claims more are being baptized.

This was yet another sermon devoid of false prophecy (all his sermons are devoid of true prophecy).  He did have one aside that was interesting.  Quoting from his sermon beginning at 1 hour and 3 minutes into the version with announcements, Ron is referring to the song “But As For Me, I’ll Call on God“, page 45 in the WCG purple hymnal:

I think about one song that comes to me often, especially within the church.  ‘We walked to God’s house by-side in counsel blended sweet, we did as equals meet.’ It wasn’t a matter of looking down upon others.  There was that friendship there, that camaraderie.

As time has gone on, fewer and fewer are regarded by Ron as his equals.  Starting when he was ordained in 1981 and later rose to pastor rank, experiencing trials getting along with his congregation in Erie.  After a holding period in UCG, he broke away his own congregation and as related on this blog threw off the yoke of the lay church board.  And now he has no equals even among all the other Herblets with their own CoGlets since he is one of the Two Witnesses.  And he has no equal there, since he is the Spokesman of the Two Witnesses.

And then it goes on to tell about betrayal.  And I think about the things that have happened in the church.  Because when people leave God, and they go away from God, betrayal always follows.  Ugliness follows.   That’s why on the web sites out there you’ll find such garbage written toward me, that started toward Mr Armstrong.  And all the filthiness, all the lies, all the garbage that’s written out there…

Ron, Ron, Ron.  I’ve emailed you and asked you to write back and tell me anything I’ve posted that’s incorrect so I can fix it.  Since I haven’t heard anything from you then it must be true.  Starting with the $381,000 price for your mansion on the golf course, and continuing on with everything else.

The people who write so much of that stuff, you know who they are?  They’re people who used to walk to God’s house side-by-side in counsel blended sweet because they used to believe the same thing.  And now they’re filled with bitterness, they’re eaten up inside.

Ron, Ron, Ron.  Who are you talking about?  Dill Weed was never a CoGger, having a  JW background.  And neither was Jack.  And as I’ve explained previously, while you and I might have incidentally walked side-by-side to the big top through the piney woods 39 years ago, it wasn’t in “counsel blended sweet”.   Because while you were drinking HWA’s Flavor Aid by the gallon, I wanted out of there.  The only other poster still actively discussing you is Thielogical Bob, who doesn’t show any more or less of his misplaced arrogance than normal.  And by the way, Herbie is Bob’s spiritual idol too.

Some didn’t understand some of the things I was talking about awhile back when I talked about people being eaten up from the inside out.  In some cases those things happen physically as well.They destroy themselves more and more.  The more they tear apart God and God’s way of life and those who are Gods.

When I was transcribing this, I debated with myself as to whether an apostrophe belongs in the last word.  After considering Ron’s arrogance stating that everything he has is God’s and teachings such as the sealing of the 144,000,  I decided that the transcription is accurate as I have it to indicate what Ron meant.

So here we get to the good stuff, Ron spiritualizes away his death curse, yet still implying that it has happened physically.  In what cases, Ron?  To whom, Ron?  Ron, we did understand your death curse.  We also understand that your prophecies are physical at the time of declaration.  Later on when they don’t happen, then they become spiritual.

They don’t understand what they do to themselves.  They’re miserably unhappy people.  Just like the demonic world, they’re miserable.  They live in misery.  They like to take their misery out on human beings because they hate human beings.  They truly do.  They like to see human beings suffer.

Now Jack has weighed in on his state of mind and it’s the opposite of what you state.  Dill Weed doesn’t seem miserable either.  And I’m rather happy, because indications are that you’ve lost a tithe slave.  Roger from Australia was about to join your group but decided to check into things and looked at my web site.  Perhaps he looked at my page showing all the failed prophecies in “2008 God’s Final Witness” started by Kirrily, yet another ex-tithe-slave.  I hope even more will do the same.  As I continue to mock Ron with every post I write, now 32 weeks after he issued his physical death curse against me.

False Prophet Ronald Weinland has just posted an open letter on his blog to Moses Znaimer of ideaCity. Here is a copy of it:

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This is the letter I sent to Moses on the 21st of July:

Dear Moses,

It is with genuine gratitude that I want to thank you for the opportunity to have been a presenter at ideaCity. Long before the actual event, I was receiving very positive and helpful communication from your staff. Once my wife and I arrived in Toronto, we began to meet more of your staff members who were also exceptionally helpful, friendly, and enthusiastic. Then, on the first morning, we had the opportunity to meet even more staff members who continued with that same excellent helpfulness, care, and concern for our presence at the conference.

My purpose in writing to you is twofold. First, I wanted to thank you and your staff for making us feel so very welcome. Secondly, I must tell you why I could not return after the first morning of presentations.

The first few presenters were interesting, thought provoking, and they tied in well together, even with part of what I addressed in my presentation. Everything was fine to this point. I understand offering diverse thoughts and opinions, as with the gentleman who followed my presentation who espoused the belief, through intellectualism, that “God never wrote a book” and how he believed in the fallacy of what was written in scripture. As God’s prophet for this end-time, I know such ignorance is all too plentiful on earth. [Weinland is speaking of the ignorant Tom Harpur, author of "The Pagan Christ"]

However, a couple of presentations later, you gave the stage to a man who was “supposedly” a comedian, but sadly, the content of his message was so revolting, perverted and blasphemous that I found it incredulous that you would have given such recognition to something so hideous. For me, this is one of the most distasteful experiences I have ever had in my whole life. It is not my purpose to pass judgment on you, but to explain to you why I found this presentation so harmful to what I had believed was a more noble purpose for ideaCity. [Speaking of Rick Miller]

Perhaps you could try to put yourself in my shoes for just a moment. Indeed, as I said in my presentation, I do not expect you or that audience to believe I am God’s end-time prophet.

However, I would think that you might at least consider that I am very sincere about the warning I gave and that I have a deep conviction and passion about the message I delivered. Having said this, I would think that you might then understand that what I experienced (and hopefully, a few others might have experienced) was one of shock and dismay that ideaCity would allow such a presentation to be given. Tolerance and diversity do have their limits in life, even in this world.

There is no example I can give to reveal the magnitude of what this was like, but consider what it might be like if I had a brother, and he was one who was known for his tireless efforts to promote peace, give monetary aid, and influence the promotion of medical assistance to underdeveloped nations (due to his great wealth, political influence, and known humanitarianism). In time, my brother was murdered by terrorists and then drug through the city behind a jeep until only some few bones and flesh remained. Then, a few months later, ideaCity hosts a comedian who mocks the death of my brother while I am in the audience. Jesus Christ is my brother and you sponsored a comedian who mocked his death in front of me.

Out of conviction and conscience toward my brother and Father, I could not return in the afternoon, nor could I participate in anything further that would show any kind of support for ideaCity. To me, participation of any kind after that would have meant I was condoning what was presented.

Since I have no idea about your beliefs, I do want to say that the Eternal God, the God of Abraham, who I spoke about in my presentation, does not take this event lightly. This is not a small thing that such mocking of His Son was given audience at ideaCity and that you personally sponsored this. It is my hope that you come to see the magnitude of the severity of your decision for what occurred and that you will pursue God’s mercy in this matter because of what it will mean to you personally if you fail to do so.

Most sincerely,
Ronald Weinland

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Ronnie doesn’t allow commenting on his blog. But I do, and this is your opportunity to comment on Ronnie’s fatwa.